Although Hardowa's pass failed to connect with van Riemsdyk in the third period, the play illustrated just how active the defensemen were Saturday night in the University of New Hampshire hockey team's 5-2 win over Rensselaer.

Defensemen scored three of the first four goals, one each by Eric Knodel, Justin Agosta and Hardowa.

The blue-liners also accounted for 14 of the Wildcats' 27 shots on goal.

“We try to bring that second wave as much as we can,” Hardowa said. “I think that's a strength. We have a lot of good-skating defensemen, and they know the more opportunities we get to bring a second wave that generates more chances for us and opens things up for the forwards too. That means you have one more guy to cover.”

Knodel scored the first goal and Agosta netted the eventual game winner in the second period on what was actually an attempted centering pass that caromed off the skate of an RPI defender.

Hardowa made it 4-1 in the third with his first goal of the season.

Wildcat defensemen have scored 15 goals this season, including six by van Riemsdyk and five by Knodel, both career highs.

Hardowa and van Riemsdyk each have nine assists to tie for second on the team in that category. Van Riemsdyk leads all Hockey East defensemen with 15 points.

“The strength of our team has been the defensive corps,” Umile said. “They're not only good defensively, but they can add offense to the team as well.”

Five of the top six defensemen returned from last season and freshman Brett Pesce has looked right at home in his rookie campaign, contributing a goal and an assist.

Going into the weekend, UNH was ranked sixth nationally in scoring defense and 10th in offense.

“We talked about their D jumping in the rush,” said RPI coach Seth Appert. “It's certainly something we game-planned for, but executing it against a really good team on an Olympic-size ice is something different.”

UNH broke the game open with a pair of goals by John Henrion and Agosta just 2:17 apart early in the second period that made it 3-1.

“I thought we put a lot of pressure on them and generated some good transition offense and good puck possession,” Umile said. “The defense got into the rush, I thought, all night.”

The Wildcats outshot the Engineers over the final two periods, 21-11.

“I thought their D won puck battles against our forwards which led to transition chances,” Appert said. “As skilled as their goals were, I thought their compete on their sticks was a little bit higher than our forwards.”

The two-way contributions of the blue-liners helped the Wildcats improve their non-conference record to 5-1-1.

“It's nice to have that comfortability to be able to jump up there when you can,” Hardowa said, “but obviously you're trying to play defense first. If you see a chance where you can jump in, that's a good thing for us.”

UNH's final 16 games will be against Hockey East competition, beginning next weekend with a home-and-home series against league-leading Boston College.

“Out of conference is a big thing when you're deciding the final show,” Hardowa said. “To get another win under our belt out of conference, our last one before we go into Hockey East play, is huge. It's a big momentum thing for us too. That's two in a row coming off the loss at Dartmouth. It's big, especially going into next weekend. We've got the battle of all battles coming up.”

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The line of Jay Camper, Matt Willows and Dan Correale turned in another solid performance.

Despite being held without a shot on goal Saturday night, they still contributed to the offense with four assists, two each by Camper and Correale.

“Every time they're on the ice we feel like it's a momentum swing for us,” said senior forward John Henrion, who scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period. “They're playing very well defensively. They have the puck almost the whole shift any time they're on the ice.”

Camper also won nine of 12 draws. It was his faceoff win in overtime that resulted in the game-winning goal last Monday against Bemidji State.

Camper made a nice play on Hardowa's goal, holding off a defender while passing the puck to the big defenseman, whose one-timer from the right circle resulted in his first goal of the season.

“I'm not even sure if Camper saw me or it was a sixth sense,” Hardowa said. “He just threw it back there and I happened to be in the right spot at the right time. It was definitely a nice feeling to get that first one. I've been waiting for a while to get that one.”